A messy workspace boosts productivity

Prioritise using mess

Believe it or not, an untidy workspace can save you hours every week. A messy desk can be a highly effective prioritising and accessing system, says David Freedman, author of A Perfect Mess.

Research by Eric Abrahamson at Columbia Business School shows neat people spend 36% more time searching for things. Mess has its own logic: the location and depth of the piles tells you about chronology and importance. So pile it high and spread out.

Multi-task more

Never delete anything from your desktop just because its not immediately useful, says Freedman. Instead, take cognitive scientist David Kirshs advice and consider your computer screen a form of external memory. The more files the better, to spark connections.

Search functions cut through mess in seconds. Try downloading FileLocator Pro, its a very simple program but better than standard built-in PC searches.

Get 3D creativity

Mess promotes creativity by allowing you to make new connections between unlikely things  and moving into three-dimensional space amplifies this effect, says Freedman. Using walls, even hanging things from the ceiling takes your mind into 3D mode, amplifying the random connections that generate ideas.

Einstein worked in this way. Its called descriptive complexity theory. Now try explaining that to the cleaners...

Time to be tidy

Bosses will often see mess as a threat, especially if its in shared space. Tidy, organised people see mess as rebellious, and bosses see it as a challenge, says organisational therapist Mary Sherry. Youll have to specifically convince them that creativity is the end result.

Either explain just how your unique system has saved the company money... or tidy up. Find out 10 great strategies for achieving this, from interaction designer Chanpory Rith, at tinyurl.com/officetidy.

Save your life

In the UK, 350 people a year are killed in workplace accidents and chaos is often the cause. People are often killed by their own mess  crushed under it or as a result of fires, says Freedman. Its important that mess isnt a safety hazard.

Try extending piles of paper into cyberspace using software from Evernote  scan any document, drag it into the folder and its organised for you and stored on a cloud server.

Easier order

Piles of files on your desk might take up space, but theyre an excellent way to order older papers, while keeping them accessible. Accountants need mess like this. Its what we call steady state, or order, says Sherry.

If part of your working life demands a steady state paper, you can get someone to visit your office to organise it for you using services like taskseveryday.com  wholl get your paperwork sorted for next to nothing.

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